SoCon13 brings social media mavens to Kennesaw State

Submitted by tdemel on Fri, 02/15/2013 - 5:45pm

More than 300 businesspeople, educators, bloggers, media experts and entrepreneurs converged on the Kennesaw State campus on Feb. 9 to learn how to harness the power of social media and social networks at SoCon13, hosted by the University’s Center for Sustainable Journalism. This was the seventh annual SoCon event designed to bring together some of the Southeast’s most influential digital marketers.

A panel of social media all-stars — Jeffrey Mirman, vice president of marketing with Turner Sports; Ema Carr, marketing and communications manager with YEAH! Burger; Mathilde Piard, social media manager with Cox Media Group and Russell Sauve, e-commerce and social media manager with The Fox Theatre — served as the opening keynote panel. Each shared their company’s digital strategies, real-world examples and offered their own take on the future of social media.

Mirman told attendees about Turner Sports upcoming move to a 24/7 social media operation to help manage the network’s worldwide popularity. YEAH! Burger’s Carr highlighted how the Atlanta restaurant uses social media to improve customer satisfaction, noting that one customer was offered a free refill and complimentary dessert within minutes of a complaint filed over Twitter. And Piard and Sauve shared how each of their companies use social media to build their brands and how social media has helped them connect with their customers.

After the keynote panel, participants divided into breakout sessions and workshops exploring topics such as: law, ethics and social media; going global, customer engagement in the palm of your hand; the art of the hashtag; organic marketing and the internet; big data and solving the challenges of marketing an unknown product; and social media in the non-profit arena.